My brother and I were talking and after squeezing everything we could out of shoes, ships and sealing wax, the topic turned to dad and fishing.

When dad took us on a daylong or weekend fishing trip, he usually, as he was a creature of habit, packed the same goodies (with few variations) in his old metal cooler:

Rag baloney, colby cheese, mustard, white bread, Vienna Sausages, potted meat, sardines in mustard, saltines, pickled eggs, pork rinds, circus peanuts and Moon Pies.

Dave and I, out of tradition, whether together or separately, have also included those hillbilly staples in our coolers. Our grandkids call it 'old timey' food.

I try to keep that stuff around to remind me of fun, gentler times. Besides, I like it.

What are your favorite go to cooler goodies?

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Sounds a lot like my list,where was your Dad raised? I add sharp cheddar and deer sausage along with honey buns.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

Dad used to tell people that he was from Maine.....

"The main part of Kentucky".

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I don't ever remember going fishing with my Dad, he passed away when I was 9 years old.

When my wife and I go fishing I let her handle the food and I eat like a king. When I used to go by my self, I would pack whatever I could find, Vienna sausage, Beanie Wieners, maybe a sandwich or two.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

I like to fish up on Lake Ontario for salmon and trout. I keep two coolers on the boat - a 120 quart, mounted on the transom, strictly for fish. One trip, some friends came along, and insisted on putting a couple cases of beer in that cooler, said "no problem" when I insisted it was for fish. The first couple salmon in the cooler, along with their beer (I don't drink beer) seemed to cause an issue, something about the fishy taste... They bring their own beer coolers now.

The second cooler is for the traditional breakfast special. It holds a dozen eggs, a package of onion rolls, a block of cheddar cheese, butter, and a pound of bacon that is pre-cooked the night before, and placed in a zip lock bag. Oh yea, and my iced tea.

I like to get out before the sun is up, and start trolling. I insist my friends drink at least 5 or 6 beers by that point, as it is an important component to the plan...

I take the empty beer cans, cut them in half. Fire up the small gas grill I keep on the bow. In the bottom half of the beer cans, I place a dab of butter, an egg, a couple pieces of bacon, and top with a slice of cheese. Place the beer cans in the grill, with the rolls on the top rack, close the lid, and about five minutes later, you have the perfect egg sandwich. The whole mess is no stick, and just slides out of the can onto the toasted roll.

No matter how good the fish are hitting, someone always volunteers to man the grill.

And there is always at least a ring of venison baloney to go with the left over cheese for lunch.

Larry

Same hillbillies in my background,we are probably related.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

Now you went and made me hungry.

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John. SWCA #1586

Vienna sausage, bologna, cheese nabs and a couple moon pies will take you a long way.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

Anchovies in the can too lol

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Spin The Wheel

Makes good backup bait too.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Jerky. Doesn't have to go in the cooler, leaving more room for the important stuff : beer.

Some people get a table at a gun show to sell guns. I go to eat. Forum member GF is my partner in gluttony.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

I tell everyone "LA." Lower Arkansas.

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Possum—The other white meat!

"Most" trips were short enough to make it back home without starving. Fishing by boat where you didn't have to carry stuff was different & more drinks than food: beer,water,gatorade, maybe sandwiches or chips if it was a better planned trip. Hunting: Jerky & something sugary was a survival type food almost always in my pack but I usually didn't eat it. I was more of a thermos of coffee guy. A thermos of hot ramen noodles with 2 eggs in it was a feast on a cold morning. Caffeine & a snickers bar would hold me for about 4 hours. Camping: hard boiled eggs, peperoni, oranges, canned beans & raviolio's were a standard. Best was bringing my buddy from New Orleans that was an unreal campfire/camper cook, & could whip up unreal meals but use EVERY cooking pot/utensil. 1 cooked, the other did dishes.

Ritz Crackers, Sardines, Lots of Black Pepper

No Cooler Needed

When I eat them now I still think of Fishing with Dad

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

Pop wasn't a fisherman,but his pack usually had some bread,cheese,landjaeger,and a beer or a little wine :-)

When we would go, off the jersey coast, my mother would fix us lunch the night before. She would fix either fried chicken or pork chops. Lost more pieces of chicken or pork chops over the side when a fish hit then I ate. Beverage was hot tea with a little lemon and sugar.

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Peace was my Profession

With all that stuff on the day's menu, y'all didn't even have to put gas in the outboard, did you?


And do I want to know what "rag baloney" is?

My dad didn't do outdoor stuff with my brother and I. When I married my wife grew up trailer camping (she had also been a Camp Fire girl all the way up to Camp counselor). She already knew how to bake in a Dutch oven and together we worked out a recipe for a deep dish pizza. She also has a recipe from her mom call "College Coffee Cake", it is baked in a Bunt cake pan and is to die for. We always take two and never bring any home. Now that the kids are all grow and scattered across the country, she will make it when they visit. One of our gifts to each of the kids when they get married is a hand written coffee cake recipe and a good Bunt Cake pan. Our daughter has a big A. camper and triplet boys to fill it. Like when she was growing up, College Coffee Cake is only for camping!

Ivan

OUCH, sounds painful.

The "College Coffee Cake" sounds delicious...and interesting. Are all the ingredients legal?

Jokes aside, why don't you post the recipe for that? Or send it to me in a PM. I mean, you know, unless it's like this Big Family Secret or something like the formula for Coca Cola maybe.

Deer sausage, braunschweiger (sp?), ritz crackers, colby cheese, and doughnuts from the local bakery. Hunting or fishing...we were good to go.

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Just pretend this is witty.

Pretty much the same here but lately I've been taking a chicken fried steak sandwich, with Colby Jack cheese and heavy on yellow mustard. Usually have a couple of Slim Jim's and some peanut butter crackers, there's a momma duck that hangs out at the lake, she often gets some of the crackers.

For as long as I can remember, the standard fishing lunch was either sardines or Vienna sausages (or as my granddaddy called them, VI-innies, I still call em that), a sleeve of crackers, bottle of hot sauce, an eight pack of Miller ponies and a Payday bar.

Nowadays it's Yoo-Hoo's or juice boxes instead of beer and a Kashi bar instead of a Payday. Once in a while I take a walk on the wild side and carry a can of spaghetti-O's instead of VI-innies

In my younger days we had a cabin on a local lake. My dad and I would be on the lake before daylight. About 10 AM the boat was turned back toward the cabin. By then my mother was up and had breakfast ready. I'm not sure which I looked forward to the most, fishing with my dad or my mothers breakfast table. Would give most anything to do both one more time.

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Old Age Ain't For Sissies

My wife and I don't go fishing, (I do, she doesn't) but on road trips our cooler always has cooked prawns, cocktail sauce, chicken salad w/pesto, and Ritz crackers. Her beverage of choice is Pinot Gris, and mine is Vitamin Water Zero.

When I'm by myself, it's PB&J sandwiches with Fritos!

I've seen that movie so many times I knew exactly what was just said!

I grew up with PBJ's a jug of water and no whiners. If you caught fish you ate. If you got skunked it was more PBJ. Eggs or oats for breakfast, dutch oven chicken and potatoes if we had enough light and time.

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Front sight and squeeze

Both of my Grandfathers were avid fishermen. I spent more time on the water with my Dad's Dad, GP Mac. He was into saltwater. My Mom's Dad was into fresh water and had aquariums, some were natural tanks with local species. I love fish.

On GP Mac's boat were cheep Winn Dixie sodas. (I loved the Blackberry) Grandma would make PBJ's for me.

For some odd reason I'm seeing a trend, Most of you guys including my grandpa like canned fish. Why bother fishing? I only eat fresh caught.

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Dum vivo cano

I used to go to the country and spend a couple of weeks with my older Sister, (she's 86 now). Remember a fishing trip with my brother in law's Brother, Bud. Sis made me a lunch of two left over breakfast biscuits and two chicken thighs "short legs" as we called them. I stored them in the bib pocket on my overalls. We fished Fox Creek, don't know if we caught any thing, but I do remember crossing the creek and the water was deep, so Bud just grabbed me by the gallus straps on my overalls and away we went.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Dad was a golfer, I was a fisherman, so I 'd go fishing with friends or my uncles.
I always put in some bologna, (baloney if it's a fishing trip), cheese, mustard, white bread and cokes and water to drink in the cooler. (beer was for after the trip)

The purpose of the food wasn't nourishment, but to make the fish bite. Whenever things were slow, I'd put my rod down, open the cooler, get out all the ingredients, make a sandwich, open the drink, take a bite, and inevitably along that stream of events, a fish would hit, causing a mad scramble to grab the rod, put the sandwich and drink down while maintaining future edibility, then work the fish.
A sandwich was the best fish finder I ever had.

doublesharp, you had me right there:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

A buddy of mine was going fishing just off Hilton Head with his pals. They went in a little bait shop buy all store at the landing. Standing behind the counter was a right good sized S.C. island girl frying pork chops. All ordered pork chop sandwiches to take fishing with them for a late morning snack. Of course they came wrapped in spool paper in a brown paper bag. About 10 o'clock they all started opening their sandwiches. The each had 2 pieces of "light bread" and 2 fried pork chops as broad as a linebacker's hand. One of our locals shouted " Damn, that fat gal KNOWS how to make a poke chop sammich".

Fried chicken, Cokacola was on my old daddy's menu. Nowdays, if I'm fishin for fun, it's whatever the rich folks left the day before. If I'm working, it's whatever the chef sends to the bridge.
Oh yeah, dorado or wahoo ceviche usually gets made by my crew while we're out there.....that'll do nicely.

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Halfway and one more step

The property owner of 300 acres in the Catskills (novice) would bring (the old style paper) a shopping bag full of food into the woods/stand. 2 Liter soda, hero, big bag of chips, assorted junk food for when he wasn't smoking. It may have been steep in places he avoided, but nowhere HE went was more than a 15-20 minute stroll back to the house. Of course we'd eat before leaving and again when we came in around 11ish for lunch. If you want to make it about the food, call it a picnic with rods/guns.

Up until my mid to late 20s fishing was a drinking trip with poles. Then my buddy managed to con the corp of engineers out of a 99 year lease on a campground and marina on the Rim Canal of Lake Okeechobee in Moore Haven. By age 35 (1986) I was a fishing guide. I did that for 15 years during the off season of my Indiana produce business. My buddy ran the marina into the ground and corp of engineers took it away from him in 1993 and it's vacant to this very day.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

Dad wasn't a fisherman but bought a boat in 1968 and took my brother and I on fishing trips when we were teenagers. He drove the boat and we fished. His menu.

Bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (no wings)
Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Rolling Rock Beer

Hard cheese, beef stick, sardines, Snicker bars and apples.

I hunt and fish in MS, TN, and AR. Every gas station has those items available, and you can often find some combination of them in my pack. I can vividly remember a day of duck hunting on a gray winter day in Mississippi. Shivering hard, eating potted meat on crackers, and thinking it was 5-star cuisine.

When we went fishing as kids it wasn't about the food. Eating was for when you were done.

When I tell my boys its time to get fishing or hunting, they know they'll spend the day snacking on chips, jerky, chocolate etc. Mom always tries "helping" when I pack up the cooler by putting in a bag of carrots, apple slices, or other garbage.

We've found that kind of junk doesn't work as bait for fish, but we've put it out for deer with moderate success.

Dinty Moore beef stew and crackers.

You can live for days on that stuff.

You need a lot of water though if you're going to try it.

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That's just somebody talkin.

"What are your favorite go to cooler goodies?"

Hmmm, lemme see now. Oh yeah, BEER!

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Real men love cats!

You folks are way to complicated.

One LARGE cooler for BEER, really cheap stuff in cans and a lot of it!(no fish)

On board cooler was for ICE, (then fish)

Carton of cigs or cigars

Food was a giant sub sandwich and a bag of chips or whatever.



Ah yes, days gone by

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Still Running Against the Wind

My Mom would fry up a bunch of chicken and put it in this weird round insulated aluminum bowl with a lid( which I still have). It was great because we'd eat chicken and toss the bones overboard. As a kid I thought that was kinda fun.
When we would go to her Parents place in Jersey we'd go out in the Delaware bay in Grandpas boat. He'd always bring a round Scotch plaid cooler full of Check cola, orange and root beer. The old kind that you had to open with a church key, which he also used to open the cooler lid. Times were hard back then...no pull tabs or spring loaded buttons. I still have that cooler too!
I remember bologna sandwiches and peanut butter&jelly.
My dumb brother always wanted to eat a peice of squid, the bait, but would never do it. Don't know why not because he did eat the dogs biscuits occasionally. Did I mention he was dumb?

Sounds VERY similar to what my buddy and I pack in our boat (daily) for our fly fishing trips to Maine. We'll usually throw in some pepperoni and walmart fried chicken for good measure. Never know when that old 6 hp won't start and leave you stranded on the lake for a day or two :-)

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Dave

Back in 1972 my brother and I hiked to a high country alpine lake for an overnighter fishing expedition. Somehow we managed to forget the food bag. Well, the catch and release fishing then got real serious. We did find salt and pepper in one pack. Rainbow trout on a stick was quite tasty. Over 40 years latter, we still talk about the night ln the high Sierra's we ate like Kings.

Ring bologna, Spam, braunscreiger (sp)

Nowadays, between Dr Boombatz and my "health conscious Yogi" (3rd) wife, my cooler has nothing I want to eat. Over the years I've packed all the staples already mentioned. Absolute "all time best", my 1st wife's mother made a spread with leftover roast beef with some kinda mustard-mayo mix that was outta this world good. I used to fish with her 'ol man, a retired Illinois State trooper down on lake Kissimmee. Sometimes catch half a dozen 5+ lb largemouths in less than an hour. I think I enjoyed the sammichs more. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

Coolers are for beverages, preferably ones comprising malt/barly/hops.

Ummm, good. Cheescloth wrapped chub full of the parts of pig and maybe beef that would otherwise go into making soap. Along with a good bit of "cereal filler"- good well balanced eatin' right there. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

I wish I hadn't asked.